The establishment of our UK subsidiary is an important step for the bank to build a global wealth management and financial services platform said bank chairman Hu Huaibang in an article by China Daily. In the same article Liu Xiaoming, Chinese Ambassador to the UK alluded to the bank prudence saying, ritain today is opening its arm to China corporate investments. At the same time, under the guidance of the 12th five year plan (2011-2015), China is encouraging its companies to go global. /p>
The first London representative office was established in 1993 to cater for the bank non-transactional dealings. Presently the bank has 11 branches abroad in total, including the financial centres of Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and New York. There is a representative office scheduled to open in San Francisco and the Sydney office is due to expand into a full subsidiary.
This is the latest move by Chinese banks in increasing their international presence. Earlier examples of this included the China Construction Bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China all having new branches within the last 18 months. The Agricultural Bank of China also has proposals to open up facilities in London.
In their efforts to increase their presence abroad, Chinese banks are moving into many new jurisdictions, especially the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN). Sino-ASEAN trade rose 26.4 percent to $267 billion in the first nine months of 2011 from the same period in 2010, according to Chinese customs figures. The trade surplus between China and ASEAN was $18.9 billion during the same period.
In May, Bank of China Ltd (BOC) opened its first outlet in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Yue Yi, BOC vice president, said "we have set up branches in seven ASEAN countries, and we would like to expand to the remaining three," according to a China Daily news report. Other significant developments in this region have been from China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd who have recently set up business in Vietnam.
All this is in addition to the Chinese governments oing Out strategy to enhance economic growth of its western regions in the area known as the Beibu Gulf Economic Rim. The Chinese government premier and party secretary Wen Jiabao, speaking at the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning last month, stressed the importance of increasing China and ASEAN volume of currency swaps. China currently has swap agreements with the ASEAN countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
